Pedaldad posted:Chico Escuela posted:PitchingFan posted:
Again, LL has it's place and that is as a recreational event but don't make it out to be a competitive baseball league or that those players in the LL WS are the best 12 or 13 year olds out there. There are a few but most could not even make a top travel team roster.
My son and his LL all star teammates did have a bit of a learning curve initially when they had to learn to hold runners, etc. But I'd say they caught up within a season or so (most play HS baseball now; almost all who do not chose to play other HS sports). (This is a team that won a state LL title in one of their pre-12 year-old years, so they admittedly were better than most LL programs around here.)
Let me start this by disclosing my disdain for LL. In my experience it is a malignant organization that exploits pre-teens with complete disregard for their well-being. 46' to the mound and 60' base paths is ridiculously dangerous at this age and both LL and ESPN should be ashamed of themselves for promoting this carnage. The notion of all-star 12 year olds is preposterous, but when a 12 year old man child (who is often a shaving 13 year old), lays everything he has got into a linedrive up the middle, I don't want to be finishing my follow through off the mound 38' away.
That being said, my son's 12 year old buddies played LL, so he wanted to play. From his 2013 12u all-star team there are three players who were invited to the PG national at Tropicana field this summer. All three of them with rankings above 500. All three of them with multiple P5 offers, and all three of them commitments to D1 powerhouses. There are two others from this team with strong D2 and JUCO commits. There are two more still trying to choose from offers that they have. This LL team did not even make it out of their state playoffs. All 7 of these kids played on the same Travel team and won most travel tournaments that they entered and made the championship game in all but one tournament that year. Definitively, LL has good players.
They had other LL all-star friends with talent, but they played almost exclusively LL and very little travel ball. These friends routinely looked silly when it came time to hold runners, take a lead, and field their infield position as they began playing 'real' baseball. It definitely hurt their development and none of those individuals has committed to play college ball, despite most having a desire.
Just my experience.
What carnage? I saw more pitchers get drilled in 17u wood bat summer ball than LL.
The LLWS does not represent the typical LL player. The average 12yo is 4’10”. At 5’ my son was the shortest on his all star team as a 12yo. The average 13yo is 5’3”. There won’t be 13yos in LL starting next year.